


A Siren's Call

by moriartyisme



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, Mythology - Freeform, Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 11:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1185498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moriartyisme/pseuds/moriartyisme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story is the origin of the Sirens. Sirens are the women thrown off ships when the sailors got afraid because having a woman on the boat is bad luck. As they sink to the bottom legs tied together they change slowly until they can breath, until they can use their tied up legs to swim. And they drown sailors in revenge, luring them in by singing in their husky voices still stinging from the salt water they breathed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Siren's Call

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look, my first writing thing! I hope you guys enjoy it, it was really fun to write! I got the idea from a prompt on Tumblr, and went off that (it was a little like the summary). Please, please, please let me know what you think, as this is my first real "published" piece. Thanks, and enjoy!

* * *

"See, I _told_ you that bringing women on the ship was a bad idea!"

The captain sighed, running his hands over his face. "It's _murder_ we're talking about here. There must be another way."

"If there was another way, do you think I would be talking about this? I'm talking about my wife here. But you know the folklore; they bring bad luck. And everything that's happened...the first day out, Michael died on a routine round and then just yesterday Henry died of food poisoning. And have you seen those storm clouds coming? We need to get rid of them all, _now_." The captain's second-in-command, James Worley, stopped talking and put his hands together, seemingly begging God for mercy.

"If you think we don't have another choice, James, then I believe you. We will… put the women to rest tomorrow morning. Oh, and James?" The captain gave him a hard stare. "Make sure none of the ladies know about this. That could cost us more lives. But tonight, when they're all sleeping, bind their legs together and… put a sack over each head. There are some sacks left from the potatoes we finished off a few nights ago."

James could only nod solemnly.

* * *

The next morning, everyone was up on the deck, many with tears in their eyes. The six women were crying, with the potato sacks over their heads. Some were calling out to their loved ones to save them. James heard one voice incredibly loudly; his wife's. He had gotten absolutely no sleep the previous night, knowing that the next day he would murder his own wife. He had to physically resist the urge to rush over to her, tear off the potato sack and hold her tight. One woman wouldn't hurt, right? Even as he thought this, he knew he could never endanger the rest of the crew for one woman. There were more women where she came from, right? "J-James, p-p-please! James, don't d-do this!" There she was. His beautiful, amazing Renee. He knew he wouldn't be able to resist much longer.

"We need to do this now, boys! Say your prayers quickly, because the storms a-brewin' and we need these ladies in the water before it hits!" James yelled over the women's terrified moaning and the wind that seemed to echo them.

"You heard 'im! Into the water!" The captain screamed, trying (and failing) to keep his face emotionless. Six men, all unrelated to the women, lifted them up, while the women were flailing around, and dropped them into the sea. "Now, boys, we must pray for the six forsaken souls, and also for Henry and Michael. _Dear God, please accept into your arms…"_

* * *

The women, as they sunk down, held their breaths as long as they could. They wanted to scream, to curse their husbands and fathers and every person on that ship. _There could have been another way; there must have been another way._ One by one, they couldn't hold their breath any longer. As they sucked in the salt-water, their throats stung and they only had one thought on their mind, as if they were thinking in unison: _Revenge. Revenge. Revenge._

* * *

Suddenly, Renee felt air rush into her lungs. She looked around at all the other women to make sure they were having the same experience; it wasn't just a near-death hallucination. The other women- Janelle, Amelia, Sarah, Hannah, and Grace- looked back at her with just as wide of eyes as her own. She tried speaking, " _Are… Are we dead? This doesn't feel or look what I imagined heaven would be…"_ Her voice was raspy and deeper than before due to, she assumed, the salt water she breathed in. She looked at the rest of their faces, but they didn't seem to be looking at her face. They seemed…they seemed to be looking at her legs and then back to their own. She looked at their legs and realized why. Where their legs had previously been bound together by rope were… fish tails.

* * *

"Why us?" Grace asked, flicking her green tail around nervously. "Why did God choose to save us and turn us into… sirens?" They all had deeper voices than before.

"Isn't it obvious?" Hannah retorted. "He wants us to avenge all of those women shit sailors like the ones on the boat throw overboard." Her new tail, which was silver with hints of green, sparkled in the sunshine that hit the water. They had all been experimenting with their new-found anatomy, but now they were back to business.

"Well, I agree that we should get revenge somehow, but the question is how could we do it? How could we make them pay?" Amelia piped up. She was only 19, the youngest of them all, and she swished her golden tail, which complemented her red hair, around angrily.

"Wait a second, girls." Renee exclaimed, "I have an idea. I was looking at my husband's maps and saw a shallow but very rocky and dangerous area about 5 miles ahead along the route that the ship was taking. What if, somehow, we could lure the boat over to the rocky area; then the ship will sink, killing everyone on board. It's a pretty frequent trade route, too. We can show those men how it feels to drown, to feel terror as deep as our own. Except no one will be there to save them." Renee finished triumphantly, her dark blue tail reflecting her mood.

"But… but how do we lure them? Over to the rocky shore, that is?" Sarah, the quietest of them all, had a pale, peach-colored tail. "I don't think talking will work. I mean, our voices won't carry that far. Maybe we could try singing. Like we did to entertain the sailors at supper. Maybe that will stand out…" She trailed off and the rest of the girls looked at her in stunned silence. Then they exclaimed, almost as one: "PERFECT!"

* * *

Swimming, after getting used to their tails, went quite a bit faster than that blasted ship could have ever gone. They reached the bay with over a half hour to spare, passing the ship en route. "How can we make sure they hear us?" Amelia asked, looking around. "Oh, _look!"_ She pointed excitedly to a rock emerging from the surface. "We can all fit on there. Come on girls!" They quickly climbed up (they could still breath out of the water as well), and waited for their prey to arrive.

* * *

James looked out to sea, still wiping tears from his eyes. _She's in a better place,_ he told himself. Almost like magic, the storm they had seen earlier went in a different direction, saving them from the fate his wife and the 5 others had met. He shook himself and moved away from the edge, telling himself that he was second-in-command and, as second-in-command, he had work to do. "Hey, Frank," he yelled up to the helmsman, "be careful! We're coming up to the bay with all of the rocks."

"Will do, James. Just hang in there, okay?" Frank was one of the lucky ones. He didn't lose one of his loved ones. James was lucky too, in a way. Nathan, the Quartermaster, lost both his wife, Hannah, and his daughter Amelia.

"You… you betcha. Thanks Frank." He was about to go down to the hull, but then he heard something. It sounded like Renee. _Stop it James. You're hallucinating._ Now the bay was almost directly next to them. _She's singing? Why is she singing? Is this normal? Wait… are there more voices?_ It seemed he wasn't hallucinating. Either that, or the whole crew was hallucinating too. Frank was the only one sane enough to keep at the wheel, but it seemed that even he wanted to get closer to the source of the singing. No one thought to question him. As they got closer, the words became clearer. The voices, while still definitely the women's voices, were deeper and raspier, as if they had swallowed the salt water and it dissolved into their vocal chords. Many sailors were physically resisting the urge to jump over the edge of the ship as the words rushed over them.

* * *

" _This way, O turn your bows;_  


_Achaia's glory;_

_As all the world allows;_

_Moor and be merry_

_Sweet couple aires we sing;_

_No lonely seafarer;_

_Holds clear of entering;_

_Our green mirror."_

* * *

Coming around the corner, they saw six figures sitting on a rock. They looked identical to the women they had thrown into the water, except these women had fish tails. James saw the siren version of his wife, and he couldn't help but scream out, " _RENEE!"_ She looked at him, and he didn't see any of that sweet, loving kindness in her anymore. All of it was replaced by malice, malevolence, and what looked like an urge for revenge. He snapped out of the spell, but not before he heard a sickening _CRACK_ as the boat hit the deadly rocks. The other men, however, were still engrossed. So, he was the only one to hear the women cackling to themselves as he sunk to the sea floor, getting scraped and poked and stabbed by the rocks on the way down. All of the other men, it seemed, got it easy. They were dying happy, in love with the music. Wait. No. That wasn't true. He saw four others trying to get a grip and swim up. They were the men whose wives and daughters were tossed into the sea. _Their final revenge_ was James' last thought as he gagged on the saltwater and slipped into blessed unconsciousness. He could still hear the women laughing above the surface.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this! I hope it was an enjoyable experience; I tried really hard to make it entertaining. So please make sure to let me know what you thought of my story, and please keep being amazing my dears!


End file.
